After\u00a0expulsion, defamation<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating\u00a0Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli,\u00a0welcomed\u00a0Alice Froussard\u2019s expulsion\u00a0on the social media platform X,<\/a> adding the unfounded accusation that\u00a0she\u00a0\u201csupports Hamas.\u201d According to\u00a0the\u00a0Israeli news\u00a0site\u00a0i24News, the recommendation to expel\u00a0her came from the ministry\u2019s director-general.\u00a0i24News\u00a0said the authorities cited several statements\u00a0she had allegedly made, including describing\u00a0certain Israeli laws as \u201cdraconian,\u201d\u00a0asserting that Israel operates a dual judicial system amounting to \u201capartheid,\u201d and\u00a0saying the 7 October massacre should be considered \u201cin context.\u201d<\/p>\n RFI issued a statement condemning \u201cthe refusal of entry imposed on journalist Alice Froussard upon her arrival in Israel,\u201d noting that\u00a0it had\u00a0occurred amid \u201cgrowing difficulties faced by journalists covering developments in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n Political\u00a0retaliation?<\/p>\n The decision to bar\u00a0Alice\u00a0Froussard from entering Israel came one day after French\u00a0foreign minister\u00a0Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot announced\u00a0that\u00a0Israeli\u00a0finance minister\u00a0Bezalel Smotrich\u00a0was banned from visiting France for\u00a0\u201cincitement to violence\u201d and\u00a0advocating for\u00a0\u201cannexation\u00a0of the West Bank.\u201d<\/p>\n A subsequent statement by Amichai Chikli provided further evidence of an Israeli failure to distinguish between the French state and a French freelance reporter. After the French consulate in Jerusalem expressed its outrage on 11 June about Alice Froussard\u2019s expulsion, the minister\u00a0responded by directly addressing President Emmanuel Macron and\u00a0his foreign minister,\u00a0criticising\u00a0France\u2019s sanctions against Israeli officials.<\/p>\n Growing pressure on international media<\/p>\n RSF had already warned in recent weeks of\u00a0growing Israeli pressure\u00a0on international\u00a0media<\/a>, citing the entry ban imposed on Spanish journalist\u00a0Queralt Castillo, as well as the revocation\u00a0of the visas of\u00a0French journalist Khadija Toufik and Italian journalist\u00a0Alessandro Stefanelli.\u00a0Such measures\u00a0have compounded\u00a0the\u00a0existing persecution of\u00a0Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, who have\u00a0for years\u00a0been\u00a0subjected to arrests, intimidation,\u00a0violence<\/a> and even murder. The victims include\u00a0Shireen Abu Akleh<\/a>, Al Jazeera\u2019s veteran correspondent, who was killed by an Israeli sniper while reporting on\u00a011 May\u00a02022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After\u00a0expulsion, defamation Israel\u2019s Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating\u00a0Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli,\u00a0welcomed\u00a0Alice Froussard\u2019s expulsion\u00a0on the social media platform X,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-489091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}